Game apparatus configured to simulate the play of sports games, and test a player's skill and accuracy, are well known and popular. One type of apparatus simulates the playing of a basketball game and requires the player to launch a ball into a basket. One such conventional apparatus is a table top basketball game disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,735,682 to Sweet. The game is played by two players, each flipping balls with a lever toward an opposing basket. The location of the opposing basket may be changed between games by adjusting a screw that secures the basket a selected position relative to the shooting lever. However, the disclosed game apparatus does not provide for a continuous or automated adjustment of the distance between the ball launching lever and the opposing basket during the play of the game.
Another conventional apparatus is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,160 to Wichinsky et al. The disclosed arcade-style game provides a number of laterally spaced coin slots into which a coin may be inserted. The inserted coin is then hurled towards a backboard containing a number of baskets. The backboard includes one basket that is mounted to automatically translate from side to side during the course of the game. While this transverse translation of the basket does cause a user to choose the optimum coin slot into which to place a coin, it does not affect the change in the distance between the coin launching platform and the basket.
Conventional game apparatus do not enable a player to continuously gauge a changing distance between a projectile propeller and a target, and adjust the projectile trajectory accordingly. Thus, conventional apparatus do not develop the gauging/adjustment skills required for live sports.